1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to pull bows for forming a decorative bow for attachment to wrapped gifts, containers and the like and, more particularly, to a decorative bow having multiple loops arranged in an annulus by pulling on a drawstring having a short-travel stroke.
2. Description of Related Art
Ribbon and drawstring assemblies formable into decorative bows for attachment to wrapped gifts and containers are known, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,515,837; 4,608,283; 4,476,168 and 2,841,905. A single ribbon strip folded over to form two ribbons at a common end, or a pair of ribbons joined at a common end, are each subdivided into ribbon sections arranged lengthwise along each ribbon. Clips, wires, apertures, bond, staples and analogous retainers are provided between each adjacent pair of ribbon sections. A drawstring is secured to the common end, and extends between and along the ribbons and loosely through the retainers. By pulling on the drawstring, each ribbon section is folded to form an arcuate loop. The more loops, the "fuller" is the bow thus formed.
Hence, in order to form a very full, and thus a more attractive, bow, the art has proposed very long ribbons to form many ribbon sections and, of course, this means a very long drawstring which has to be pulled over a very long pull or travel stroke. This is wasteful of material, and the long pull stroke presents added risk of the bow becoming torn, damaged or soiled during its formation.
Prior bow assemblies have also suffered from the drawback that,on pulling the drawstring, the ribbons tended to fold themselves into loops which were all aligned in one vertical plane, thus forming a fan shape. Since the user normally requires the bow to be arranged in a more decorative rosette or pompon form, the user had to rotate individual loops laterally and rearrange them so that the loops were spaced angularly around a central axis of the bow.
To overcome this time-consuming task, the art has resorted to mounting the aforementioned retainers at angles of inclination relative to the longitudinal axis along which each ribbon is elongated. Each retainer is advantageously oriented at an angle different from that of the adjacent preceding retainer. When the drawstring is pulled, instead of the loops tending to superimpose themselves one on the other, the successive loops arrange themselves at differing angles spaced around the central bow axis to provide the desired rosette form.
Although generally satisfactory for its purpose of forming a rosette bow, the mounting of retainers at different inclination angles has proven to be a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,837, each ribbon has to be notched with V-shaped indentations offset from each other, and each retainer has to be separately mounted at different angles of inclination. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,168, inclined bonding areas of alternately reversed orientation have to be provided. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,283, spaced-apart weld areas have to be appropriately oriented. It would be simpler and less labor- and time-intensive if such retainers need not be inclined and, yet, not sacrifice the automatic formation of the rosette form.